Revel with a cause

Rib-tickling roast of sheriff aims to arm Salvation Army for holidays

By Evan Lips, elips@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/09/2012 07:41:50 AM EST

LOWELL -- Do something about it. That's the Salvation Army way.

Maj. Everett Henry, who along with wife Patricia, runs the national organization's Lowell branch, took that message with him to Thursday morning's Christmas Castle Breakfast. The event is the official kick-off for one of the city's biggest charitable campaigns.

"The need gets larger and larger every year," Henry told a UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center ballroom full of supporters and donors.

This year is no different, as Henry said the charity campaign is looking to help 45 to 50 new families this year, on top of the 581 families it delivered for in 2011.

The Christmas Castle program, launched 20 years ago, came up big for Greater Lowell last year, providing 1,250 children with new toys, clothing, hats and mittens, while distributing 725 food baskets and 7,180 items of clothing.

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Henry pointed out that several devastating apartment fires last spring have left families, nearly eight months later, still reeling. The Easter Sunday fire at the Walkway Condominiums on First Street Boulevard, left 55 people homeless.

Weeks later, a five-alarm fire ripped through three multifamily houses in Lower Belvidere.

"For you it might just mean a new toy to a child but to a mother or a father it means hope for a brighter tomorrow," Henry said.

The boost in the number of families needing help means there is now a need for 300 more toys and 600 more articles of clothing, Henry said, along with "many more tons of food."

There also were plenty of light-hearted moments to go around, including a roasting of the morning's honoree, Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian.

Just after 7 a.m. Thursday, breakfast attendees entering the ballroom were greeted to the familiar strains of Christmas carols, while slushy snow continued to cling to trees and the tops of cars from the night before.

Koutoujian later could only sit and laugh as two friends and fellow law-enforcement leaders, Lowell Police Superintendent Ken Lavallee and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, ribbed him for his ego and "delusions of adequacy," as Lavallee jokingly put it.

The roast even included a stand-up performance from Boston comedian Tony V., who joked that his morning's assignment meant he was forced to "go make fun of three of the most powerful people in New England law enforcement and then try to drive home."

Inbetween laughs, Koutoujian talked about the parallels between his job, chief of which is to keep corrections inmates released from jail from committing more crimes and returning, and the Salvation Army's mission.

Koutoujian, fresh off his resounding re-election Tuesday, pointed out that the Salvation Army is "critical" to influencing people facing struggles to "stay on the straight-and-narrow."

He also took his roasting with a smile.

"I don't mind being humiliated for a good cause," he said.

To support the Christmas Castle mission by either donating new toys, adopting a child or family through the Giving Tree program or volunteering your time at the castle, contact the Salvation Army's Lowell branch by calling 978-458-3396 and ask to speak with Dianne.

Comedian Tony V. retrieves his GPS after roasting Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, center, and joking about crime in Lowell at the annual Salvation Army Christmas Castle Breakfast. At left is former Lowell police superintendent and current Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, and at right, state Rep. Tom Golden, D-Lowell, the event's master of ceremonies. Watch video at lowellsun.com. SUN/Julia Malakie

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